Lee arrives in S. Korea, set for summit with Ishiba in Busan next week

President Lee Jae Myung arrived in South Korea on Friday as he ended his weeklong trip to the United States, as he is set to hold a summit with outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Busan next week.

Ishiba will visit South Korea for two days starting Tuesday, according to the presidential office.

“The two leaders are expected to hold a summit and a dinner in Busan," said presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung.

“Prime Minister Ishiba’s visit to Korea follows the resumption of shuttle diplomacy in August, during which the two leaders agreed to meet in Korea in the near future," she said, adding that Lee suggested holding the meeting outside of Seoul during his visit to Japan last month.

The summit will provide an opportunity for both countries to "solidify the foundation for future-oriented cooperation,“ she said. "The leaders will exchange candid views on strengthening trilateral cooperation with the US for regional peace and stability, as well as on issues of mutual concern."

It marks the first time in 21 years that a Japanese prime minister has visited a Korean city other than Seoul for a bilateral summit, since then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met President Roh Moo-hyun in Jeju in 2004.

The announcement came as Lee returned to Seoul from New York as he attended the United Nations General Assembly.

Lee arrived in New York on Monday and held talks with BlackRock Chair Larry Fink and four US lawmakers. At the UN General Assembly's general debate on Tuesday, Lee unveiled his first North Korea initiative to promote inter-Korean exchange, normalize Seoul's ties with Pyongyang and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula to achieve peace in the face of the North's potential nuclear threat and its military cooperation with Russia.

On Wednesday, Lee became the first South Korean president to have convened a UN Security Council's open debate. The debate revolved around how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence technology could reshape the global security landscape.

Hours before his flight from New York on Thursday, Lee convened the Korea Investment Summit at the New York Stock Exchange headquarters in New York, again becoming the first South Korean president to do so. There, Lee highlighted his government's push for capital market reform and an inter-Korean detente in hopes of an improvement of South Korea's stock market fundamentals.

Lee, on the sidelines of the UNGA, met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Czech President Petr Pavel, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett, amid ongoing trade deal negotiations between Washington and Seoul.